OL Evans has Huskies in top four choices

Crystal Lake Prairie Ridge senior offensive lineman Shane Evans has Northern Illinois among this top four college choices and hopes to make a final decision soon.

The 6-foot-4, 294-pound Evans spent Wednesday afternoon on campus and said because of NIU’s proximity to his home, and because of the number of friends he has at the school, the Huskies remains in his top four.

The other three: Mid-American Conference rivals Western Michigan and Toledo along with Cincinnati.

Evans has narrowed his choices down to four after recently picking up his seventh Division I offer from Cincinnati. He said Wednesday he’ll make a final determination of where he’ll play soon.

Evans has also garnered interest from Minnesota after attending a camp there recently. He said an offer could be coming from the Gophers, keeping them in the mix. Evans also participated in Big Ten camps at Wisconsin and Illinois, but hasn’t gained the same level of interest from those schools as he did with Minnesota.

Still, Evans wants to make a decision soon in order to keep his focus on his final high school season. His also has offers from Ball State, Bowling Green, Miami of Ohio and Wyoming.

“It’s starting to get hard to hold out,” Evans said. “A lot of schools that have offered are really good and I really like them, but I think it’s nice to wait and see the options. But at the same time, I don’t want to wait too long.”

Evans said a few schools – including Western Michigan – have reached out to him to say they’re starting to run out of room in their 2014 recruiting class. The Broncos indicated they could be out of scholarships by week’s end.

Evans doesn’t feel pressure to rush into a decision, but he’s aware that he may have to end up passing on a school if he’s not yet willing to finalize his decision.

Evans said he’d like to make a decision and stick with it rather than changing his mind and throwing himself into limbo. Once he’s ready to seriously narrow his choices, Evans said he’ll sit down with his father, who has been his primary sounding board since the recruiting process began.

“I think once I make my decision, that will be my decision,” Evans said. “If something comes along in three months, I think it’s just too late for them because they didn’t think I was good enough (earlier) and so the people who wanted me back then, that’s who I’m going to go with.”